“Do you know, the words can change the way people feel, changes the meaning, the mood and the motivation. And how about if you can use that words on your social media marketing efforts?”
Via Brian Yanish - MarketingHits.com

“ In social media, we're all increasingly thinking about visual content. But there's one question we get asked quite often: Where can you find free, good quality images that are cleared to use for your blog posts or social media content?...”
Via Ana Cristina Pratas, John Evans, Deborah Welsh

How often do you use Google to find something on the internet?If like a lot of people you use Google every day you’ll be astounded by the number of hidden tips and tricks their search facility offers.Find 46 of them featured in this infographic.
Via Lauren Moss

Nothing hidden about these "tips & tricks" - just standard every day library functions. This is not new, most these functions have been used since Win95, the days before we see the net as we do now. Nonetheless, whatever it takes for people to finally catch up and educate themselves about easier searching techniques!

“In Woody Allen's cult classic Sleeper , Allen's character Miles Monroe is cryogenically frozen, then defrosted 200 years later. The doctors of the future who examine Miles are tickled - New Zealand Herald”
Via Peter Mellow

Social media monitoring tools are essential business elements that every business should do in running their day to day activities. These tools are of great significance as they help in identifying customer’s response, data analysis and coming up with business marketing strategies. Here are 30 top social media monitoring tools that you need to try as a social media manager, marketing manager or even as a project manager....
Via Jeff Domansky

Most social networks are connecting us with family, friends and business associates. As we move into a new paradigm using social networks for thought leadership and professional development we will use it more naturally for performance improvement - benefits will begin to change "how we learn & teach in education" and "practice in our communities" using business networks.

Visuals are now the most important element of content marketing, but this can be terrifying if you’re “artistically challenged.” Here are three ways to create compelling visuals regardless of your artistic talent.The good news: Even someone who made that can create effective visual marketing. Without a graphic designer. And if I can, so can you....
Via Jeff Domansky

We’re quick to grab any and all WordPress plugins that can give the blog an extra edge or can wire up a feature we’d love to test. Whenever we dream something up to try on the blog, the first place we turn is WordPress plugins. We’ve collected quite the list of favorites. How about you?As we’ve tried and tested new plugins on the blog, you’ve likely noticed new pieces and parts popping up on our pages—slideups, social share buttons, CTAs, and more. We get asked quite often about which plugins we use. So we thought we’d share!Below is the list of plugins that power the Buffer blog, along with a handful of others that are on our to-try list....
Via Jeff Domansky

At this point, attendees of Google I/O eagerly anticipate the big “Oprah moment” at the end of each keynote address in which some digital goodies are revealed as giveaways for everyone in attendance. But the biggest “what the?” moment of the Google I/O 2014 keynote was the reveal of Cardboard, a virtual reality headset that is actually made of cardboard, as one of those gifts.Yet Cardboard is no joke. It’s actually a full-fledged virtual reality delivery system based around an Android smartphone that just happens to be recyclable.It has lenses similar to any of the other phone-based headsets on the market and even has a button in the form of a magnet on its side. At an I/O talk Thursday, Cardboard creator David Coz said Google chose to work with cardboard because it’s dead simple. The headset can be assembled in 30 seconds and modified with paper and scissors. It’s just a simple way to get the hardware component out to as many people as possible for $2 or less a unit.Durability isn’t as important because Cardboard is not meant for everyone (though it is already usable enough for anyone that wants to give it a try). It’s for developers, who are going to help Google build its actual consumer virtual reality headset.Click headline to read more--
Via Chuck Sherwood, Senior Associate, TeleDimensions, Inc

Since I created the slide deck as part of a blog post that had yet to go live, we gave it zero promotion. And yet, when we happened upon our SlideShare page the following day, it had earned over 3,000 views. The presentation got picked up as a featured slideshare on SlideShare’s social media page. Our 10 minutes of quality time to build it resulted in over 5,000 views in one weekend.What did we learn from this? - SlideShare is worth our time. - SlideShare users are eager for quality content. - SlideShare has huge potential for businesses and brands looking for a new audience.Of course, it all starts with the slides.
Via Jeff Domansky

“ It is the responsibility of all educators to model good digital citizenship for their students. Especially when it comes to copyright, plagiarism and intellectual property. The waters are murky. No...”
Via Deborah Welsh

Thank you Silvia. Well said. It's not just students who think anything on the net is there for the taking. I use my own media as much as possible, or Creative Commons images, but even with my knowledge it's a steep learning curve. Awareness is the first step.

“Here's an infographic that lists ten essential facts you should keep in mind when using social media to market your business.”Social media is not only a great platform for social interactions: it’s ideal for digital marketing, and there’s a plethora of social media statistics floating around the Internet...
Via Lauren Moss

A recent small business survey suggests businesses are increasing their use of social media. They are also seeing increasing return on investment. The survey also shows small businesses continue to struggle with maintaining their Facebook management. This is despite the fact that, at 1 billion members, the Facebook audience remains the largest in social media.Below, we’ve collected 12 Facebook management tips and tools. We hope they help you make the most of of your Facebook efforts....
Via Jeff Domansky

Email is one of the best channels at your disposal for marketing your online store. Emails drive traffic, supplement your content marketing, and outperform both Twitter and Facebook for generating sales.This post is about one of the most important types of emails that you can send out: the “Welcome.” They’re the types of emails you get usually when you submit your email address to an online store....That’s why you should make your welcome emails great. To make it easy for you, we've put together 13 examples of amazing welcome emails (including their subject lines), as well as three templates that you can steal, and finally the apps you can deploy to make your emails the best that they can be....
Via Jeff Domansky

A Tennessee city with fewer than 200,000 residents has arguably become private cable companies' worst nightmare. How? The city of Chattanooga's public electric utility provides super-fast broadband Internet service to residents at competitive prices. Now, the utility -- the EPB -- is trying to expand its reach beyond city limits. Private sector telecom companies are fighting this effort and appear worried other cities will follow Chattanooga's lead.To expand to more residents in a state where one in five are without Internet access, the EPB needs the Federal Communications Commission to preempt a statute that prohibits the utility from competing with private telecom companies outside its current market. David Sirota, senior writer at International Business Times, tells us in the video above telecom companies are trying to get the FCC to not to preempt this law.As for why this issue exists, Sirota argues "private cable companies don't like publicly-owned municipalities to compete with them," and so have successfully lobbied for passage of laws in 20 states that ban or restrict local governments from offering Internet service.Check out the video to see how Chattanooga, known as "Gig City," has been able to offer what analysts say is the fastest Internet in the country -- 50 times the average speed for homes in the rest of the U.S. -- for $70 a month.Click headline to read more and watch the Yahoo! video news clip--
Via Chuck Sherwood, Senior Associate, TeleDimensions, Inc

If you are tired of looking for great alternatives to Prezi – look no further, because I have the ultimate comprehensive list of PowerPoint alternatives right here. No more boring presentations. With this list you can pick the perfect presentation tool or software for your presentation (be it on stage in-front of an audience or online for sharing). We tested these 10 different alternatives to Prezi and PowerPoint and summarized what we thought about each one.
Via Baiba Svenca, Jeff Domansky

When I choose someone new to follow, when I compose a new tweet, when I share and favorite an update, I seldom think about the why. My following sessions would probably seem haphazard to an outsider, and my favoriting technique comes and goes from one strategy to another.

Even so, the way I use Twitter is far less random than I thought. There is science and psychology behind the way we all tweet.

Researchers have discovered trends in the way that we perform every major action on Twitter—favoriting, updating, sharing, and following. And there's even an interesting bit of psychology behind what makes Twitter so attractive in the first place. Here's a look at the psychology of Twitter: what makes us follow, favorite, share and keep coming back for more....

This is so informative and so helpful! It is an exhaustive study on my we are addicted to micro-social networking sights, and the writer has explained this through his understanding of Psychology. Intermittent conditioning is the term used to explain why we keep returning to the site. A single re-tweet, or a single favorite would be enough to keep us visiting the site from time to time! The researcher has also narrowed down some of the possible factors that might contribute to one's popularity on a social networking site. The findings of this research have implications for not just Twitter, but also Facebook, and Blog spot. Being a regular writer on Blog spot, I was able to gain important ideas about how to make my posts more visible, and to be able to get more hits. I am sure that all bloggers and tweeters will gain a lot after reading this!

What spurs us to follow someone on Twitter? Researchers at Georgia Tech and Michigan combined to study the factors involved in following.

The factors they came up with boiled down to three categories: social behaviors, message content, and social network structure. Here are the individual factors for each, starting with social behaviors:

Tweet volumeBurstiness – tweets per hourInteractions – replies, mentions, and favoritesBroadcast communication – the ratio of tweets with no @-mentionTrustworthiness of the profile – How well is the bio filled out? Is there a URL in the profile? Is there a location listed?

Reciprocity – The number of people you follow who also follow youAttention-status ratio – Total followers compared to total followingNetwork overlap – How similar are the people you follow to those a follower follows

... We often talk a lot about calls-to-action (CTAs) and how they help us in marketing. They're a critical component of your website's lead generation process -- especially on your blog. Without CTAs, people visiting your blog will have a hard time converting on your landing pages unless they happen to stumble upon them at a later date.So if you're trying to get more conversions from your blog, you'd think the more CTAs the better, right? Not always. To increase conversions on your blog, don't just go for volume. Make sure you have several different types of CTAs, in different formats, addressing different parts of your marketing funnel.Before you hit the "Publish" button on your next blog post, think about how your readers can take the next step to learn more about your company. Which CTAs will help get them to take the next step in their buying journey? Below are eight ideas to get you started. You may not use all of the types of CTAs in every post you publish, but they should definitely be considered....
Via Jeff Domansky

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.